About the Book:

Enter the Body offers a series of provocative case studies of the work women's bodies do on Shakespeare's intensely body-conscious stage. Ideal for literature, theatre and gender studies courses.

Author and Shakespeare professor Carol Chillington Rutter looks at sex, death, race, gender, culture, politics, and the excessive preformative body that "exceed"s the play-texts they spring from. As well as drawing upon vital primary documents from Shakespeare's day, beginning with the observation that Shakespeare wrote Cleopatra as a black queen of Egypt, the esteemed scholar presents case studies of the "bodies" of Cordelia, Ophelia, Cleopatra, Cressida, and Emilia on stage and film, from Peggy Ashcroft's (white) Cleopatra and Whoopi Goldberg's (whiteface) African Queen to Sally Dexter's languorous Helen and Alan Howard's raver 'Queen' of Troy. Zoe Wanaker, Imogen Stubbs, Jean Simmons, Helana Bonham-Carter, Janet Suzman, Kate Winslet, and Claire Benedict put in stunning appearances in this theatrically sophisticated study.

What people say:

"Enter the Body is a lively, compelling book, elegantly conceived and lucidly written. A dazzling performance." — Barbara Hodgdon, Drake University

"The strongest parts of Rutter's book include descriptions of Shakespearean productions from various decades ... When Enter the Body focuses on ideas like these, it excels and excites the imagination." — American Theatre

About the Author:

Carol Chillington Rutter is Professor Emerita at the University of Warwick where her teaching, and major research interests focused on Shakespeare performance studies. She is a regular contributor to BBC Radio arts programs and a rehearsal consultant for the Royal Shakespeare Company. A historian of the early modern stage, she is a specialist in Shakespeare and has written some fifty articles as well as several books on the Bard, including Enter the Body: Women and Representation on Shakespeare's Stage.